I Became a Police Officer in a Superhero Genre

I kept wondering. Why did ‘Mina’ come to help me specifically at this time?

Well, considering the original story progression, Park Jung-hoon bastard is an unprecedented son of a bitch.
But is he someone who needs to be taken down in advance by going back in time to the future? – That’s a bit questionable.
I could understand if she went back to when Sai was born and killed him. But why specifically this?
I thought about it. The original story progression continues until Mina becomes a college student after the Great Chaos incident, and concludes with Sai’s death.

The ‘Mina’ in front of me would have already taken down Sai, assuming the original story progression.

Is there any reason to come to the past unnecessarily and do something? If there is – the possibility that comes to mind is that I die in this incident, and Mina regrets that, is there?

Seeing that there’s not a single scar visible on ‘Mina’s’ right arm, it means my plan succeeded, but-

Why she asked for help from Yoo Nari of all people, why she’s revealing everything like this now that the case is over.

Along with these questions, numerous time travel movies flash through my mind, trying to form plausible hypotheses, but.

My brain is screaming that I need to get first aid before saying goodbye to this world before reaching the emergency room, since my arms and legs are shattered now.

So I decided to stop thinking for now and do first aid first by tearing up nearby clothes.

There- should I call it fortunate? ‘Mina’s’ belt had various tools for first aid.

She took me to the vehicle we came in and blocked the holes in my arms and legs with gauze and bandages.

Putting the pain aside, ‘Mina’s’ hands handling the bandages were very delicate. She stopped the bleeding on my legs with bandages and fixed my shattered hand with a makeshift cast.

But she did this after moving to the car saying we should do it in a clean place, creating a scene where only me and ‘Mina’ were left in the car very naturally.

Dokkaebi and the others stepped aside saying they would check if Yagi had escaped, as if it was planned.

Yoo Nari grinning and waving her hand looked like she was doing it on purpose.
I don’t know how much she knows and acts, but for now, that bitch is going to jail with those bastards today.

Anyway, ‘Mina’ treating me as I sat on the edge of the car in that awkward atmosphere.

I couldn’t find words to say as I watched her tying bandages with a face I couldn’t tell if it was sad or happy.

Did she have so much built up that she would come find me in the future? Did I die that horribly?

When I first saw the grown-up ‘Mina’, I was confused, not knowing if it was a dream or what. The second time I met her, I was surprised by her confidently revealing herself.

When I saw her again afterwards, the situation was such that I didn’t have time to think about ‘Mina’.

And now. The thoughts I have facing Mina are not questions like why she came or if she knows that I know her identity.

I just thought she really grew up well.

“Detective, it’s just a story about someone I know. It’s out of the blue, but would you like to listen?”

“…?”

As I was contemplating whether I should keep pretending not to know or how I should react amidst these mixed emotions, ‘Mina’ spoke to me.

While wrapping a bandage around my leg, she slowly continued speaking. I felt a strange charisma that made it feel like I wasn’t allowed to interrupt.

“There was someone I knew well before. An adult, and the coolest police officer. When I was young, I did foolish things wanting to be acknowledged by him. Things too foolish to be brushed off as just being a child.”

‘Mina’ started speaking as if revealing who she was. Her eyes were shaking with nostalgia, as if swimming through memories.

The already desolate atmosphere of the ruins changes to a dark and sorrowful mood.

It felt awkward that the atmosphere changed like this, but Mina looked so sad that I couldn’t even express my true feelings that I didn’t like this, and waited for what Mina would say with my mouth shut tight.

“Maybe that’s why. That detective always fought alone. Without asking for help from a kid with superpowers, he accomplished righteous and upright things worthy of being called a hero. He never compromised, saying it was what he had to do as an adult and as a police officer.”

Mina trailed off saying that anyone who saw that would have no choice but to respect such a person-

… Who is she talking about? That righteous police officer.

She wouldn’t spout such nonsense after seeing me suffer like a dog. I’m a person who likes to compromise and is not just far from justice, but completely on the opposite side.

‘Mina’s’ words were so strange that I even wondered if this child really was just someone who resembled New Hope.

Who is she talking about now? It’s certainly not about me, but I decided to listen to ‘Mina’ a bit more.

“Maybe that’s why, the detective didn’t tell us who he was fighting. While enduring and fighting alone, he rescued me. Even though I was incompetent and couldn’t do anything, still until the end… me.”

“You knew everything, right? Detective, you knew everything, but pretended not to know for my sake… I, without even knowing that… Without realizing it was consideration for me, like a fool…”

‘Mina’ started to choke up as she spoke.

Her hands trembling, ‘Mina’ started to curl up. Seeing that, I became certain.
The ‘Mina’ in front of me is not the Mina I know. The me that ‘Mina’ knows is not ‘me’ either.

You know how it is, right? In movies, when someone comes to the past but ends up in a different past than they wanted.

To put it simply, a parallel world. The kind of thing that often appears as tragedy in time travel stories.
‘Mina’ came to the past using someone’s ability to save that wonderful police officer, but.

Unfortunately, she arrived in this parallel world. It seems the parallel world me that ‘Mina’ was looking for was a diligent, upright, and righteous police officer unlike me here.

It seems he knew about Mina’s identity like me, but given Mina’s reaction, he must have really taken good care of her.

Now that I’ve realized the truth, I should explain it to her, but how should I explain this?

‘Mina’ was certainly my lifesaver. That was for sure. But to think the ‘Mina’ who saved me wasn’t trying to save me originally.
I was at a loss for words at the fact that the person she was missing and crying for so sorrowfully wasn’t me.

At the baseness and irony of this world, I habitually tried to brush my cheek with my right arm that I usually use, but came to my senses at the terrible pain.

Thinking that truly all sorts of fucking things happen in this world but this is a bit too much, I let out a sigh and then made up my mind.

Let’s just assume it’s all Sai’s fault for now.

Someone once said. Spilled water cannot be gathered again. Mina lived a life repeating that saying like a curse until she became an adult.

In the past, no, the future in this time period. New Hope lost a precious person.

Where did it go wrong? One day, Mina herself suddenly suffered severe injuries to her arms and legs.

The horrific injuries that suddenly appeared on her body, which had been fine even when stabbed with knives or hit by cars, were in exactly the same places Detective Lee Mun-su had been injured.

At the time, Mina thought it was divine punishment given to her incompetent self, rather than pondering deeply.

During the previous Minus arrest operation, she had moved too slowly and caused the precious Detective Lee Mun-su to get hurt.

She had let Minus escape too, and didn’t even visit the detective out of guilt. Mina as a young girl accepted it as natural punishment for committing such a sin.
But the price for wasting time with such foolish thoughts came not long after.

Detective Lee Mun-su went missing. The detective, whose last known whereabouts were at Gildong Ecology Park, went missing leaving only a large amount of blood in ruins reminiscent of a battlefield.

And on the day the detective went missing, the injuries Mina had suffered disappeared.

Mina of the past finally realized this incident wasn’t a simple coincidence. She searched desperately for Detective Lee Mun-su with all her might.

This country fell into chaos, society became sharply divided by hatred and conflict, and people became unable to trust even family in a hellish landscape.
In the midst of that hell, while running to find the detective, Mina somehow got injured, and found out how the Chosen Ones were involved.

She completely destroyed the Chosen Ones.

In the process, she reconfirmed the vain information that although Park Jung-hoon had ordered Sujoggwi to kill the detective at the time, Sujoggwi was found dead and the detective had disappeared somewhere leaving only a gun behind.

But Mina didn’t give up and continued investigating. Suddenly, she discovered a hidden notebook in the detective’s completely collapsed house.

At first she thought it was a notebook recording the cases that had happened so far, but many parts of the cases written in the notebook were different from the actual events.

The more she looked closely, the more Mina couldn’t help but be shocked. Not only were there things written as events that would happen in the future, which was strange – there was even content suggesting he knew she was New Hope!

Mina realized once again that Detective Lee Mun-su had indeed known about her identity, and felt an inexplicable sadness.

But then seeing contents implying that all those incidents were orchestrated by someone, she felt chills run down her entire body.

This notebook was not something written by reading the future with some superpower or such, but memos of the disgusting plans the detective had discovered while chasing someone.

It was truly frightening how all the incidents Mina had experienced were converging into a single line.

Mina realized that Detective Lee Mun-su had been chasing this something alone, and that his disappearance this time meant he had been taken by that something.

It was despairing, but conversely, it meant that shadowy figure knew where the detective was.
Mina chased after the ‘mastermind’ written in the notebook, hoping to find the detective.

She fought tirelessly for years against the monster woman called Sai who had been disguised as the detective’s deputy, struggled, and finally managed to take her down with great difficulty, but-

She couldn’t find Detective Lee Mun-su.

That devil took her last breath without revealing where the detective was. She didn’t even tell if he was alive or dead.

She regretted every day. Mina had been driven only by revenge against the enemy who had taken the detective, but in the end she couldn’t gain anything and her spirit was broken.

How could she find the detective? Was he even alive? If he was alive, where could he be?

As she became an adult and time passed, the more hardships she went through, the more she realized how much the detective had cared for her. That’s why she kept ruminating on regrets and longing for the irretrievable past.

While Mina was rotting away to her soul, doing nothing like a broken machine even knowing she couldn’t undo anything-

“Unni. With my ability, I can give you a chance to go to the past and save the detective.”

A girl she had known for a long time said.

The child who had lost her older brother in the Chosen Ones incident like herself and had been fighting together for revenge as a comrade said. Mina doubted her ears for a moment at those words.

That child’s ability was reversal. The ability to return people or objects to the past based on a certain point. No matter how seriously injured, she could return the body to a point before the injury.

Thanks to her ability, Mina was able to keep fighting, but she didn’t know it was possible to even go to the past.

Why is she telling this only now? No, here – why is she saying this, was the question.

That’s because while the child’s ability is certainly very useful and powerful, the stronger the power, the greater the price.

The price for the girl’s power is that even if something is reversed with her ability, what happened will inevitably happen again.

Even if injuries are reversed and healed, the wounds appear again after time passes. Even if broken objects are restored, they break again after time passes.

As if fate exists. An ability that seems to say there are unavoidable things.

If there’s one incomprehensible thing about that power, it’s that when things return to their original state, the state they return to is random?

An object that was completely broken might return to an even worse state with no form left when reverting to its original broken state. Or conversely, it might return to a slightly cracked state.

So even if she went to the past as the girl suggested and saved Detective Lee Mun-su, the detective could die again as time passed.

If lucky, he might not die. Or he might die even more horribly. Thinking rationally, it would be right to refuse the girl’s proposal.

But Mina couldn’t easily tell the girl it wasn’t necessary. Her longing and regret had accumulated and deepened like an ocean, so she couldn’t ignore the miracle of a chance to save the person she missed.

If she succeeded by luck, if he could just be by her side-

“- Unni. I know you think you can meet the detective again. But, I’m sorry. My ability can’t do things like changing the past. They say in movies, right? Even if you change the past, the present doesn’t change due to paradoxes.”

“But I’m telling you this because I want to leave you without regrets. Even if nothing changes today, I think you won’t be in as much pain as now… That’s why I told you.”

At the girl’s words, Mina felt the hope that had arisen being thrown back into a deep valley of despair.

Her intelligent mind recalled the contents related to time travel she had seen in books and movies so far, and could understand what the girl meant.

Even if she goes to the past with the girl’s ability and saves the detective, nothing will change for her current self. The detective will still not be by her side, and she will remain alone.

But. But you know.

Even if it’s meaningless. Even if nothing can be changed. There are people you want to meet and save.
Regret becomes longing. And longing makes people foolish. Even more so if it’s mixed with love.

Mina thought as she looked at her comrade’s long white hair and green eyes.
…..
….
…
.
She returned to the past carrying a momentary miracle.

Late at night. Under the shadowed night sky, Mina who had examined the detective’s face made thorough preparations to meet the detective again.

She wore sunglasses to hide her face, and followed exactly the method she had thought of every day for years without rest to save the detective.

She found a way to take down Park Jung-hoon and the Chosen Ones. She also found a way to remove the detective’s injuries by rescuing and persuading her childhood comrade.

Afterwards, she endured wanting to meet him, talk to him, tell him what she had been through. Pretending it was a mistake, she clung to his arm and listened to his heartbeat.

He blushed. That sight was so lovely.

And, and, and…

She did many different things. After finishing everything and seeing that the detective was alive, Mina couldn’t recall what she had done since coming here.

Her hands wouldn’t move. She was barely enduring the dam of emotions she had held back that seemed about to burst and overflow.

She had missed him and wanted to see him. She wanted to see him so much. She had wished he would appear even for just one day in her dreams, but cruelly, the detective never appeared even in her dreams.

But now that detective was alive in front of her eyes. She needed to move her hands to stop the bleeding, but her vision was blocked by tears and she couldn’t move.

How pathetic.

Now the detective is safe. What’s left is to tell him what to be careful of when facing that devil and about the dangerous enemies, but it’s all blocked by the single emotion of joy and won’t come out.

“Ha, haha- Just a moment. I know I look really strange. I know I look foolish, pathetic, and stupid. I have an illness- I’ll calm down soon… Detective. I, hic, I…”

She needed to speak. She needed to tell him how to defeat that monster. She needed to tell him exactly who the enemy was.

She needed to somehow persuade him to accept her words-

“I missed you so much…”

What came out first before all other words was an expression of longing, saying she had missed him.

“I missed you every day… I thought only of you, Detective, without missing a single day… So I, I’m sorry, thank you… I didn’t even have a chance to say it honestly! I…”

She shouldn’t waste time with such foolish acts. She doesn’t know when she’ll return.

But the detective, with his characteristic tired face, patted her shoulder warmly even while looking perplexed.

She had always thought this, but he’s such a kind person. To treat even someone like her so kindly.

She’s already aware of how suspicious and strange her actions must have looked.

That’s why Mina acted to give the impression of being a useful person for solving the Chosen Ones case, rather than babbling about coming from the future and trying to make him believe it, even if it seemed suspicious.

Thanks to that, the detective hadn’t pushed her away until now, but- now that she’s shown this state, he won’t be able to trust her. So… she needs to calm down- and do what needs to be done.

“I loved you, Detective. I love you. I’ve always loved you…”

Ah, good grief. She couldn’t hold it in. She couldn’t restrain herself.

When she was a little girl, she hadn’t realized it, and now when the person to convey these feelings to had disappeared, she blurted out the emotions that had been rotting inside.

This throws off the plan. If the detective treats her like a crazy person and becomes wary, she won’t be able to hand over the most important thing.

She looked at Detective Lee Mun-su. As she looked, afraid of what expression he would have, he rubbed his cheek as if not knowing what to say, then let out a deep sigh and said:

“That’s not meant for me, is it? It seems like it’s for someone else, not me, right?”

At those words, Mina realized.

He had known her identity from the beginning.

He was always smart and outstanding. Mina had also given hints that could infer her identity, pretending it was a mistake.

She did that because she thought she would be happy if he really recognized her, and he had recognized her like this. It was just a vague hope she had held, but it really came true.

“It’s not something I should say as the one who was saved. But the person you tried to save… isn’t me here, you know? How should I put it, like the same but different person. You know in movies there’s that- what was it, someone who looks alike but is different-”

His tone suggesting he had known who she was from the beginning, just as he knew she was New Hope.

Mina laughed. He had always known, and was the only ally who understood her.

But because he was an adult, he was speaking a considerate rejection like this.
He was always like that. He was a true adult who pretended not to know the name New Hope while supporting her choices and worrying about her.
Mina looked at Detective Lee Mun-su. His face was exactly the same as the Lee Mun-su in her memories.

The worry for her contained in those dark, tired-looking eyes. The eyes of an adult watching over a child who had lost family at a young age.

“Still, thank you. I’m really sorry you couldn’t achieve what you wanted. But um… you really grew up beautifully. You became a wonderful adult. I’m truly proud.”

At those words, Mina felt something that had been piling up and rotting in her heart crumble.

He was the person she had wanted to see. He said he wasn’t the person Mina was looking for, but. The man in front of her was certainly the detective Mina remembered and longed for.

Afterwards, Mina rushed to him and clung to him, bursting into tears she had been holding back all this time. Unable to say what she had meant to say, she just kept crying.

Certainly, if Mina returns to her original world, the detective she reunited with here will not exist.

Her past will not change. But her coming here was clearly not meaningless.

Just realizing that fact alone allowed the woman who had grown from a girl to stand up again.
The grown-up her was undoubtedly a ‘hero’ who had saved people without yielding to adversity in front of her eyes.